Wins from engaging in continued education

"Continued education is no place for the faint-hearted. [...] Being a mature student learning as a part time student is a noteworthy achievement" - these are some of the words that touched me from the welcome speech of Dr Jim Gazzard, the Director of the Cambridge Institute of Continued Education, during the Awards Ceremony in 2023, which I attended online. In 2024 I prioritised attending the Awards Ceremony in-person for celebrating the completion of two years of part-time academic studies. My studies were for the Undergraduate?Certificate?(2021-22) and?Diploma in Coaching (2022-23), both University of Cambridge awards offered by the Institute of Continuing Education.

I reflected on this experience and condensed some of my thoughts into the following three most notable wins or learnings from engaging in continued education.

1?? Confidence and a stronger growth mindset

If some entity would exist to award people on how low their self-confidence and how strong their rumination are, I would've received many medals before 2018 when I started working with my coach. It's due to the work with my coach that I started developing a "growth mindset" - concept introduced by Carol Dweck, simplistically explained as the belief that you can improve.

The motto of my coach (notice the?growth mindset?in it):

Let us, coach and coachee, be open and curious to explore what you can build better?in yourself, your social worlds?(e.g. families, friendships, fellowships, networks, organizations, local communities),?and your society.

So my academic studies journey started with a low-confident but curious "Let me see if I pass the TOEFL exam!" and it continued on the same note with "Let's see if I pass the interviews!", and "Nice, I'm in. Let's see how I 'make it out'!", meaning how and if I will graduate. Assignment after assignment, my journey gradually became filled with?confidence for I was succeeding in submitting them (with determination and effort), and also receiving feedback from tutors showing that my skills were improving from a unit to the next.

I used learning to gain confidence. I realise this happened in so many aspects of my life during this time: confidence to volunteer in the domain of children’s education, to build a professional path, to improve personal and professional relationships, to create initiatives and to actively participate in others’ initiatives at work, to collaborate with others more productively, and finally, to consider postgraduate studies. I am hooked on learning.

2?? Independent learning, study and time management skills

The Certificate year was filled with shock at the vast body of knowledge in the coaching literature, a new domain for me, having graduated Math and Computer Science 13 years before. At the same time, my job had became even more intense given that my company was acquired and all of a sudden the integration work made it feel like I have two jobs in one. The Diploma year had me further practise the growth mindset but this time with serenity and in harmony with the rest of life's usual responsibilities. My improved study skills were paying off and this made me enjoy my studies and other activities.

The university provided a lot of helpful study skill resources which supported me to do an intense, high quality work. These skills are incredibly valuable out of school - managing time effectively (and self-discipline), avoiding common study traps, critical reading, note taking, academic writing, referencing, and organising, planning and writing assignments.

3?? Critical thinking skills?(which include critical reflection skills and structured thinking)

Beyond the knowledge in the domain of coaching gained through the summative assignments totalling ±22,000 words, and through the 60 hours of practice for which I wrote coaching logs which included a summary of reflections and how academic learning has been integrated into practice, these studies helped me gain transferable skills that are key in an ever evolving world such as critical thinking.

My biggest take-away is the importance of critical reflection skills in anything we're aiming to achieve or improve on and so now I am committed to building a reflective coaching practice.

In conclusion, the world is ever evolving and the key to participate in the change and shape our future is learning. Congrats to my peers for their achievements! Appreciation and admiration to the tutors and everyone else making the “university for adults” a reality. Big thanks to my supporters during this time! Cheers to everyone else out there committed to lifelong learning of any kind, from joining a book club to studying molecular biology to studying for any purpose.